It's nice to be home, knowing that another trip to an airport is not on the horizon for a while. After two weeks in Vietnam and another week in Baltimore, little Astoria is feeling more welcoming than ever. I just wish that I had some more pictures of exotic craft and/or locations to show for the trips, but there was too much else going on.

It was most interesting to see a Page 2 story about Pinkfroot in our local paper this past Friday. I posted a link to Facebook recently, so…

A cruise ship carrying nearly 800 passengers listed for a time as it was hit by a fire on board.
The blaze, which has now been put out, took place in the engine room of Boudicca around 4am as it was sailing off the coast of Casablanca, Morocco.

The vessel was listing for a "short period" following the loss of the propulsion system, according to operator Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

Boudicca, with 784 guests and 356 crew members on board, is now fully stable and there is… Continue

A car carrier was grounded on a sandbank on purpose by its crew because it was severely listing and could have capsized.
The pilot and master were praised by the ship's owner for "saving" the vessel and crew by grounding the ship and showed "great skill".

Salvage experts are assessing how to refloat the Hoegh Osaka after it ran aground off the Isle of Wight in one of the country's busiest shipping lanes.

The 25 crew members were rescued by a coastguard helicopter and… Continue

Last night, the vehicle carrier, Hoegh Osaka left Southampton at 20:20.

Got as far as Bramble Bank and no further. The vessel seems to have run aground on the bank and ended up stuck with a serious list. The list was bad enough that the entire crew had to be lifted off by helicopter and taken ashore to Stubbington.

I imagine it would have been a spectacular sight if it hadn't been dark. At the scene were tugs from Southampton and Esso.